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Fractional Damage
Relying upon the rule of 10s, this option in Knowing Your Own Strength fixes the problem of low ST low HP creatures battling each other being a case of all-or-nothing where most of the time they inflict 0 damage but when they do inflict 1 damage it is a huge amount relative to their overall HP. This would be a great idea for all combat, really. Instead the 'hard caps' of only applying it to your own SM or lower, and high ST creatures not using rule of 10s at all, consider the following the following approach. *rule of 10s applied to all creatures of all ST against all opponents (add 10 to ST, divide result by 10) more dice = more fun, and fewer extremes because you'll have max/min less often and closer to average rolls *fractional damage applies to everyone *before dividing by 10, add SM of attacker and subtract SM of target to the result of the roll The last damage causes absolutely nothing at all in combat between enemies with same SM, but rather than simply ignoring (rounding down) fractional damage to large targets, gradually larger targets simply take gradually lesser damage. This is not a major defense because at -0.1 dmg per SM, it would take SM 10 to ignore 1 point of damage, a negligible form of DR which is very sensible. As for the pre-quotient bonus against small SM, this is still more balanced than not using fractional damage against them, which results in much higher damage from high ST beings. Fractional damage also means it would be sensible to avoid minimum damage of 1 for non-crushing attacks. Instead, a minimum of 1 pre-division would be a little more balanced. This would avoid problems like cat claws being way more capable of crippling humans with multiple hits than they actually would be, since it could possibly happen in 0.1 increments rather than 1.0 increments. Applying the minimum prior to subtracting a cat's size modifier would also mean that it would be possible to have 0 damage scratches, which is entirely possible. It is possible to touch the tip of a cat's claw 60 times without actually injuring your hands. 0 ST attacks are touches. HP 10 humans have extremities crippled by 4 (over 1/3) damage so even a minimum of 0.1 is too much. The penalty to damage from Defensive Attack (or 1/2 ST Committed Attack (Long)) should probably be applied prior to dividing by 10, as well, otherwise it would be too extreme. This also means bonuses from All-Out Attack or Mighty Blows should also be added pre-divisor, but would benefit from multiple dice. The scaling benefits from dice are further reason to want people rolling more dice, because "+2 or +1 per die, whichever is more" is always a better deal for the +2 at 1 die. The only way to balance this is to require a minimum of 2 dice so that inherently you only need a single rule and the minimum 2 is a natural consequence to it. Category:Rules